Selfie cake, Castle cake, super pink cakes and lots of cupcakes

Hey!last week was a super busy week for baking it seems like everyone has a birthday in the same week sometimes as I go from having about one cake a week to do to having about 4 to 5 in the odd week as well as going to work too. So at the moment I'm a little tired and having a little break from baking (well three days).

I thought I'd take this time to show you some recent cakes I have made and decorated so here goes :

First of all I was asked to make a cake for a friends niece who loves One Direction, Mac makeup and taking selfies. My friend made some pictures of her, and one of Harry Styles look like Polaroids on the computer and we ordered these to be printed Polaroid size on icing sheets, they came out really well. I also made some makeup out of fondant, and even dusted the fondant make up brush with edible shimmer powder. Lastly I piped on music notes and One Direction lyrics.

Next up is another super pink girly cake, this one with a quilted effect, diamante studs and edible pearls:

Lastly in the super pink cake collection was a cake for a friends recent 30th Birthday. My friend really wants to be a princess so here is her cake:

I think the detail such as the edging round the doors really made this cake!

I have also still be getting lots of orders for cupcakes and have enjoyed making some look super summery now the weather is getting better, such as these with little home made fondant bees.

Lastly for today I also recently made some engagement cupcakes:

Any way that will do for today although I still have a whole file worth of things to add and also to tell you about my new favourite cake to make and eat all to myself. I'll be back with that soon though

Cupcake Kris xxx

Breaking Bad Cake, Mountain Cake and cupcake tower for a wedding.

Wow I don't think I have gone this long without blogging before and I am also beginning to sound like a broken record in my blogs with each one mentioning how I haven't blogged in a while. But that doesn't mean  I haven't been baking. Since my last blog there have been weddings, birthdays and a holiday to Prague as well as now and again, in between novelty cakes, having time to bake for myself.

So here are just a few of the things I have baked and decorated lately:

I  made a breaking bad cake for my fiance, he loves the show and it was the perfect birthday cake complete with 'fake blue crystal meth' made by boiling down clear boiled sweets with a little food colour then pouring onto a tray lined with grease proof paper and then smashing up when hardened. 

Now, Neil's birthday is also just a day before one of my best friends so I also had her cake to make on the same day. She loves hiking and also taking pictures so I made her a mountain cake complete with lake and mini camera. Here it is:

I really don't know why I haven't got better quality pictures of these on my computer. Any way this cake was huge the board itself is a super wide board and for the peak of the mountain I used the top half of my giant cupcake mould then carved into a round cake at the bottom with butter cream between layers at intervals.

In the same week as that I also made a cupcake tower for a wedding with a giant cupcake on top. There was a bit of drama surrounding this cake involving me injuring my hand just before icing, however a lot of pain killers and help from my friend Mandie helped me finish. Anyway here it is:

Another bad quality picture sorry haha.

Any way that's it for today, there are still a few cakes I have made recently, Including 3 very pink ones that I will update with soon. Until then, bye for now

Cupcake Kris xxxx

Harley Quinn Cake

So I must apologize, I have abandoned my blog again but life has been very busy. I had my Birthday, which my friends made an amazing cake for me for and I also went on holday to Florida, It's going to be boyfriends 30th this year and he wanted a big holiday instead of a party, It was amazing.

This time of year is also definitely my busiest for celebration cakes, there's are so many friends birthdays and I also have a wedding to bake for on Friday, also on top of all the busyness whilst in Florida this happened.

So now I have a wedding to plan too. exciting times :), I also got a new job which I am waiting to start so everything has been all go at once.

Any way as I unfortunately don't have time to post a recipe today , and can't actually remember the last new thing I baked as things have been so hectic. I will just show you a birthday cake I made for a party last night.

The cake was for my friend Jen who loves Batman and especially Harley Quinn , here it is:

She loved it which id great and it went perfectly with her super hero and villain fancy dress party.

I have 3 more birthday cakes and a wedding cake to make in the next week... that's a whole lot of icing sugar.  But after that is the lead up to Christmas which means lots of lovely baking and mince pies. mmmm

Any way that's it for today , Ill be back soon with more celebration cakes and the beginning of Christmas baking.

Cupcake Kris

xxx

Lemon, Coconut and Raspberry Loaf.

I've recently been planting lots of lovely flowers in my garden and it's starting to look so pretty but one thing I've kind of abandoned this year is my vegetable patch. This was due to the fact that in late spring/ early summer we had such bad weather that i didn't bother planting any seedlings for fear they wouldn't survive.

Usually I'd cut the raspberry bush right back and plant a few vegetables but because this year I haven't got anything else except herbs growing I let the raspberry bush just take over. Now after a few weeks of sun I find myself with loads of raspberry's, more than I know what to do with. When that happens I quickly start scanning my cookbooks for all recipes involving raspberry's.

Any way all this reminded me of a cake I baked a while back. The cake itself started as a coconut lemon loaf however I found myself with raspberry's and thought that the flavour would suit perfectly as an addition. I really like raspberry and chocolate together but the pairing of raspberry and lemon I find so refreshing and perfect and the coconut just gives it an extra bit of flavour. 

Here it is : 

I had a slight issue with my raspberry's sinking to the bottom of the cake, however this really didn't take away from the flavour and tossing them in some flour before adding may prevent this. 

and here's how it's made: 

Lemon , Coconut and Raspberry loaf : 

for the cake: 

120g Butter 

200g Caster Sugar

2 tbsps Fresh Lemon Juice 

2 Eggs 

200g Self raising Flour.

Pinch of Salt 

120ml Semi skimmed milk

4 tbsps Desiccated Coconut 

1- 2 tsps grated Lemon Peel

a couple of handfuls of fresh Raspberry's  

For the lemon icing: 

3 Tbsps Icing Sugar 

2 - 3 Tbsps Lemon Juice 

Extra Desiccated Coconut for sprinkling. 

Pre heat the oven to 180 Deg C. Grease and line the bottom of a loaf tin.  

Cream the butter and sugar together until combined, beat in the lemon juice. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Sieve the flour and salt and add this to the butter mixture alternately with the milk. stir in the desiccated coconut and lemon peel.

Toss the raspberry's in a little flour and gently stir these into the mixture. 

Pour into the loaf tin and bake for about 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool slightly in the tin for around 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 

For the topping, stir the lemon juice into the icing sugar to make a runny (but not too runny ) icing to brush 

over the cake. Sprinkle more coconut over the top, then let the icing harden before slicing to serve. 

And that's it! 

I'm off to find more ingredients with raspberry's before they take over my kitchen.

Cupcake Kris xxx

Fathers day, Baby shower cupcakes, giant cupcake wedding and a very rude hen night cake.

As ever I have been busy baking away for orders, there have been lots of events recently and even though in between I have had time to bake a few things for myself (almond and white chocolate biscotti and tea cake to name a couple) I haven't had the time to upload any of the recipes, but I promise I will blog one of those recipes this week .

In the mean time I thought I'd show you some orders I've had recently.

First I had an order for a wedding at the beginning of June that was for 100 Cupcakes and one giant cupcake. This would be the first giant cupcake I made so I had a practice a few weeks before to get the quantities and timings right but I was very pleased with the end result, here it is.

I was made up with the mould once I'd ironed out a few kinks and quantity stresses. I usually do not like working with silicone moulds, however I think me and silicone have put our differences aside now I can finally confidently produce a cake that comes out cleanly and cooks evenly (after google helped.) Any way the mould was a bargain, reduced to just £1 at a local discount store.

I covered the bottom of the cake in roll out fondant and then iced the top with rose swirls, then filling in any gaps.

Then there was fathers day, my orders for this were much more straight forward:

I had to borrow this photo, as I forgot to take one of the cakes set up.

I also had an order for some baby shower cupcakes in both pink and blue:

For these I made little sugar paste feet, bibs, bottles and Baby signs. I really like the feet and they're super easy to make too.

And lastly I had a very interesting order for a hen night, I actually watched a tutorial of how to shape this cake in the break room in work and got some interesting looks from nosey people trying to see what I was watching. Any way, any children look away now:

I'm not sure I'd be thrilled on receiving such a cake however the  hen party were glad and it was exactly what they wanted. The "hair" is piped with a multi holed nozzle for that real look. It was definitely one of the most interesting orders I've had and everyone I told about it actually couldn't wait to see the finished errr......piece

Any way on that note I think I'll leave it at that and update with new recipes later in the week

until then, bye for now

Cupcake Kris
xxx

Dark Chocolate and Amaretto Cake

So, I have an ever growing list of cakes I've baked recently, not for orders but just for fun that I plan to post on the blog along with the recipe and what I thought of the bake. Some of these cakes I made quite a while ago, some recently however sometimes these get pushed to the back of the list for even more recent cakes I've made, this is the case today.

The reason for this is I got a new cake book and after a brief browse and 1 bake I can already tell that it's going to be a firm favorite. The book people came to my work last week and even though I had made a promise to myself not to purchase any more cookery books I couldn't help myself and came away with a copy of The Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook. The recipes in the book are from different members in all the different factions of the club all over the UK  and some abroad. and after reading about the club it sounds so much fun and a really great concept. I mean any club based on cake is a great concept right?

 I'm so glad I broke my own promise to myself though as it is a beautiful book filled with inspiring recipes and I think I want to bake them all. Boyfriend and one of my best friends have already had a look through and picked about 7 or 8 cakes between them for me to bake next haha.

There were so many cakes in the book I wanted to bake first however my choice was based on the fact I had a big bag of Amaretti biscuits that needed using as well as most of the other ingredients required so I decided on the Dark chocolate and Amaretto cake which was a recipe from Carmella Hayes, part of the Northampton and district CCC. The recipe itself was really well written and the cake came out perfect and full of flavour. Here it is :

I apologise for the terrible photo, I was a tad rushed as boyfriend really wanted a piece before it had even finished cooling.

Dark Chocolate and Amaretto Cake:

This cake is best mixed by hand to retain the best texture.

4 large eggs
50 g Caster Sugar
200g Self raising flour
100g Ground Almonds
1 Sachet of pane degli angeli ( An Italian vanilla flavored raising agent) or 1tsp baking powder with 2tsp Vanilla extract.
200g Butter, Melted
200g Good quality dark chocolate, chopped
200g Amaretti Biscuits  crushed
2 tbsp Amaretto liqueur

Pre heat the oven to 180 deg C and grease and line a 23cm round cake tin.

In a large bowl beat the eggs and sugar using a wooden spoon. Add the flour, almonds, baking powder and vanilla (or Pane degli angeli) and melted butter and mix well. Stir in the chocolate, Ammaretti biscuits and Amaretto liqueur, mixing well.

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 45 - 50 minutes until the top is firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes, the transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Any way that's all for now, I'm off to plan my next bake

Kris xx

Mothers day cupcakes, a Very Leopard Print Birthday and Easter Basket Cupcakes

I have been very busy with cupcake orders recently. We've had valentines day which I thought was busy but then Mothers day came and I found myself having to make 92 cupcakes and a two tier Birthday cake over a weekend.

Here are just a couple of the Mothers day cakes I made

Both of these where Lemon flavour cupcakes with the bottom set decorated with hand made Lillies. These were my first attempt at flowers like this and I definitely want to get better and develop a wider range.

As i said earlier I also made a two tier Birthday cake over Mothers day weekend too. This was for my friend Alex. Last year I made her the pink princess birthday cake topped with feathers that can be seen in this post
and this year I wanted to make something even bigger and better. My friend is renowned for loving anything leopard print as well as anything with a bit of sparkle so I came up with this :

To get the leopard effect I used icing sheets round the side and a disc cut for the top and then I covered the joins on the top with piped icing. The sheets gave a really great effect and were easy enough to work with.
The lettering around the cake reads "Happy Birthday Lady Alex" as me and a friend also bought her a Lady ship title as a gift (hehe)  Any way she loved it and didn't even want to cut the leopard print tier at first.

Lastly today I have been getting ready this week for another busy cupcake making weekend with lots of Easter orders to be made. This week I have been practicing some designs ready and I think these ones are really cute:

The cupcakes are vanilla and I used vanilla frosting dyed green and piped using a multi holed nozzle to create a grass effect (this was harder on my hands than expected) I then used a strawberry licorice straw for a handle and decorated with tiny chocolate eggs. I'm now gearing up to decorate many more of these and a few other designs this weekend for Easter orders.

Any way that's all for today, no recipe this time but lots of pictures that I hope will inspire you.

Bye for now

Cupcake Kris xxx